About the Film

Naftali-Duro Furst

Naftali-Duro Furst was born to Artur and Margit Furst, in Bratislava,
Czechoslovakia in 1932. He and his older brother, Shmuel, enjoyed an
idyllic childhood until the Nazi annexation of Czechoslovakia in 1938.
Forced to leave Bratislava as all Jews were, Naftali and his family
hid in various towns before moving to Nove Mesto, where they had relatives.

In 1942, Naftali and his family were deported to the Sered concentration
camp in Slovkia. They were held in Sered until 1944, when Slovakia
joined the anti-Nazi uprising that began as Soviet troops pushed their
way westward. The Fursts returned to their ancestral hometown of Piešťany,
from where they were eventually captured by the Nazis and returned
to Sered.

In November 1944, Naftali and his family were deported to Auschwitz-Birkenau
and in January 1945, Naftali and Shmuel were taken on the infamous
“Death March” to Buchenwald, where they were both put in the Block
66 of the “Little Camp.” While in Buchenwald, Naftali contracted pneumonia
and after a brief stay in the infirmary, was housed in the camp’s whorehouse,
from where he was liberated by the Allies in 1945.

Naftali, his parents and his brother all miraculously survived the
war – the only Jewish family in Slovakia to return intact from the
camps. After the war, the family immigrated to Israel. Naftali served
in the Israel Defense Force and lived on Kibbutz Ma’anit. He later
worked as a photographer, a driving instructor and a factory manager
prior to his retirement.

Naftali lives with his life partner, Tova Wagman. He is the father
of the artist Ronit Furst and has four grandchildren.

Pavel Kohn

Pavel Kohn was born in Prague, Czechoslovakia in 1929. After the Nazis annexed
Czechoslovakia, he was first prohibited from attending school and later deported to
Theresienstadt with his entire family. His father died in Theresienstadt and his mother
in Birkenau. In 1944, Pavel and his brother were transferred to Birkenau and then to
Blechhammer, where his brother died in the gas chamber.

In January 1945, Pavel was sent on the “Death March” from Birkenau to Gross Rosen,
from there he was transferred in an open coal car to the Buchenwald concentration
camp, where he was housed in Block 66. After liberation Pavel returned to Prague
to discover that his entire family, save for one cousin, was murdered by the Nazis.

Following his studies in dramatics and theater history, Pavel was a dramatist at the
Theater in Carlsbad/Karlovy Vary, where he worked for five years until being fired for
political reasons. He was banned from his profession for seven years, during which time
he worked as a theater critic, reporter, writer and editor.

In August 1967, he escaped Czechoslovakia to West Germany, where he worked for over
twenty years at Radio Free Europe as a producer. Since 1990, he has been retired and
living in Germany.

Pavel is married to Rut and has three children, seven grandchildren and a great-
granddaughter.

Israel-Laszlo Lazar

Israel-Laszlo Lazar was born in 1930 in Oradea-Mare, Romania to Jenö-Shlomo and
Rozalia-Shoshana Lazar. In 1940, his hometown of Oradea was incorporated into
Hungary, setting the stage for the eventual annihilation of the town’s Jews when
Germany occupied Hungary in 1944. In 1944, Israel and his family were deported to the
concentration camps Auschwitz and Buchenwald.

After four days in Buchenwald, on June 26, 1944, Israel was deported to the Rehmsdorf
labor camp, where he worked in a lignite factory. After surviving three bombardments
of Rehmsdorf by allied troops, Israel was sent to the Buchenwald concentration camp on
February 6, 1945. At Buchenwald, he was housed in the “Little Camp,” first in Block 59
and later in Block 66.

Following the end of the war, Israel returned to Oreda, to find that only two other
members of his extended family had survived the Holocaust. From 1946-51, he worked
in a garage and a machine factory while preparing to immigrate to Israel, which he did on
January 21, 1951.

In 1952, Israel began his military service as a mechanic. He served in this capacity until
1983, when he retired from the army and worked as a mechanic for several different
companies until his retirement in 1995.

In 1988, Israel began working on his autobiography as a way to memorialize the
members of his family who perished in the Holocaust. He filmed a documentary
about his life from 2005-2007 and volunteers as a lecturer on the Holocaust in schools,
museums and libraries.

Israel is married to Esther, has four children and four grandchildren. He lives in Kiryat
Motzkin, Israel.

Alex Moskovic

Alex Moskovic was born in Sobrance, Czechoslovakia in 1931. In the Spring
of 1944, when he was 13 years old, Alex and his family were packed
into cattle cars and deported to Auschwitz - Birkenau where he was separated from his
parents and siblings.

In the winter of 1945, as the Soviet Army advanced on Birkenau, Alex, along with
thousands of other inmates, was taken on the “Death March” to Gleiwitz,
Poland. In Gleiwitz, Alex was reunited with his father Josef and brother Zoltan. At
the end of January 1945, Alex, his father, brother and the remaining survivors were
transported in open coal cars to the Buchenwald Concentration Camp in Germany.

Alex was liberated by the U.S. Army on April 11th 1945 in Buchenwald. He
was the only survivor of a large immediate and extended family of 41.

In July 1946, Alex immigrated to the United States and eventually went to work at ABC
Sports (Wide World of Sports, Olympics) as a post production editor for 30 years. He
earned 10 Emmy Awards for his work.

Today, Alex appears as a guest speaker at schools in South Florida and is an active
member on many committees involved with Holocaust and survivor issues. On April 27,
2007 Alex was awarded the Gold Good Citizenship Medal from the St. Lucie Chapter of
the Sons of the American Revolution for his outstanding contribution to the education of
our nation’s youth.

Rob Cohen, Writer. Director

Rob has traveled the world finding the stories that matter. As a documentarian he has worked for CBS, Discovery, PBS and History. He has directed several films of Jewish interest and has received numerous awards.

Steven Moskovic, Executive Producer

Steven Moskovic is an award winner producer, director and director of photography with
over 25 years of production experience.

In 2006, he produced and was the director of photography for the documentary film “The
Diary of Immaculee;” he also produced the feature film, Homeland in 2008. Steve was
the director on the independent feature, “One Angry Man,” which he also produced.
He is currently producing the documentary film “The Soprano State,” and directing the
Independent Feature, “In A Pickle.”

Steve’s father, Alex, is a survivor of the Buchenwald concentration camp and it is in his
honor that Steve has decided to make this film.

Brad Rothschild, Producer

Brad Rothschild is a producer and writer with both a creative and a business
background. He received a Masters in International Affairs and an MBA, both
from Columbia University. From 1995-1997, he served as the Speechwriter and
Director of Communications for the Mission of Israel to the United Nations.

Paul Turlick, Producer

Paul Turlick has been involved in all aspects of video production for over 22 years
ranging from corporate to industrial, documentary to independent features and a wide
array of broadcast productions. Over the past 15 years, he has focused on producing and
post-production supervision with an emphasis on documentary filmmaking.

Paul has a BS in Television and Film Production from Syracuse University and a
Master’s Degree in Media Studies from the New School for Social Research.

Martin P. Pohl, Producer

Martin Pohl was born and raised in Mainz, Germany and moved to the United States in
where he established P. POHL PRODUCTIONS in 1995.

P. POHL PRODUCTIONS offers clients professional, high quality films, commercial
shoots and stage shows using locations in the New York City area, the United States,
and Europe. P. Pohl Productions is a full-service business with over twenty years of
experience in producing and directing television spots, feature films and corporate videos
and events for his international clients in the Luxury Packaged Goods Industry as well as
the Luxury Automobile and Financial Industries and also Feature Films.

Kenneth Waltzer, Historian

Kenneth Waltzer is professor of history and director of the Jewish Studies Program at Michigan State University. He has completed researching and is finishing a book tentatively titled Telling the Story: The Rescue of Children and Youth at Buchenwald; he is also preparing a second book tentatively called Buchenwald Stories: Children in the Nazi Concentration Camps.

Professor Waltzer has been in the news several times connected with his research on Buchenwald, including his discovery of the rescuer of Israel Meir Lau (Lulek), the eight year old boy who later became Chief Ashkenazi Rabbi of Israel and is today head of Yad Vashem, and his outing of a Holocaust memoir fraud, Angel at the Fence, by survivor Herman Rosenblat, whose story appeared first on the Oprah Winfrey Show. Professor Waltzer has interviewed and compiled information on over 150 former Buchenwald boys who live around the globe, primarily in the U.S., Canada, Israel, Australia, England, and France. He is a major source for the history of child rescue and child experience in Buchenwald and of the story of the kinderblock 66.

Production Personnel

DONATE

The International Raoul Wallenberg Foundation ("IRWF") has made Kinderblock 66: Return to Buchenwald one of its key projects, and will be accepting tax-deductible contributions earmarked for its production. We hope that you will consider making a donation to the IRWF. Click here to find out how.